DI Resin
Printed From: Utah Reefs
Category: Main
Forum Name: General Discussion
Forum Description: Posts that don't fit in any of the other categories.
URL: http://www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=68157
Printed Date: July 28 2025 at 9:02am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.03 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: DI Resin
Posted By: love2skiutah
Subject: DI Resin
Date Posted: December 05 2013 at 9:54am
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How often are you guys changing your DI resin filters and how often do you flush your system? I have a 6 stage from BRS and it takes me about 5 weeks to go through both cartridges. I do flush the membrane 1 time a week - Just curious as to how much you guys are going through.
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Replies:
Posted By: lskurys
Date Posted: December 05 2013 at 10:08am
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I am making it about 2 to 2.5 months on a cartridge. ------------- 220g , large elite aquatics sump. 3 Radion Pro Gen 3 lights 3 Mp 40's |
Posted By: love2skiutah
Date Posted: December 05 2013 at 10:14am
Do you know how many gallons you make per day? Mine just seems high. Granted, I probably have close to twice the water volume, but I'm still burning through it 4Xs as fast as you are... |
lskurys wrote:Posted By: lskurys
Date Posted: December 05 2013 at 10:16am
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My tank is going through about 3 gallons a day and I will do about 60 gallons for water changes each month.
------------- 220g , large elite aquatics sump. 3 Radion Pro Gen 3 lights 3 Mp 40's |
Posted By: love2skiutah
Date Posted: December 05 2013 at 10:18am
Wow. I do 3 gallons a day and I have some else make water for me and bring it every week... |
Posted By: lskurys
Date Posted: December 05 2013 at 10:25am
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Really you should have your tap water tested. I know it Roy my tds is about 400 before filtering. In the winter I seem to go through more prefilters for some reason. With my 5 stage I am around 10-30 tds before it hits my Resin.
------------- 220g , large elite aquatics sump. 3 Radion Pro Gen 3 lights 3 Mp 40's |
Posted By: love2skiutah
Date Posted: December 05 2013 at 10:26am
| My meter says 190 before it hits the unit. I don't know how to tell before it hits the resin... |
Posted By: lskurys
Date Posted: December 05 2013 at 10:28am
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just hook up it up before it goes in to your resin. This will let you know how hard your resin needs to work. the higher the number the faster you will burn your resin. ------------- 220g , large elite aquatics sump. 3 Radion Pro Gen 3 lights 3 Mp 40's |
Posted By: Fatman
Date Posted: December 05 2013 at 10:51am
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I went 14 months on my first set of filters from SpectraPure. I changed them when the TDS got to 4 out of the DI. Won't get that now, we hooked the ice maker to the RO unit and we use a LOT of ice. Thing runs all the time. Since the ice maker only get RO water, I expect to change those often, but the DI resin should last me a year. Fat |
Posted By: love2skiutah
Date Posted: December 05 2013 at 11:08am
| I'm burning 2 cartridges every 4-5 weeks... Doesn't seem right. 3 gallons a day and I'm not even using it for water changes. Just hooked up my meter before the di resin and it's 22. I wonder if I have it hooked up wrong or something. |
Posted By: Jimbo
Date Posted: December 05 2013 at 11:26am
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Sounds like you have a bad membrane. I use a BRS in line dual TDS meter and it reads 6-7 TDS out of the membrane and 0 out of my DI. DI last about 6 months and I replace as soon as I get any TDS. What is your TDS reading out of the Membrane? |
Posted By: love2skiutah
Date Posted: December 05 2013 at 11:27am
| Yeah, I'll look at it. It's a fairly new system though. I have an extra membrane. Maybe I'll change it today. |
Posted By: ReefdUp
Date Posted: December 05 2013 at 11:37am
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I change my DI resin about every 4 months, but I use a ton of water...and our tap water is terrible. Plus, I recharge my DI resin, so the life is a couple weeks shorter than new resin. I would test your TDS into and out of every stage. Do you have a pressure gauge inline? If so, change your sediment filter whenever the pressure changes...that'll help save the life of the filters downstream that are more expensive. ------------- www.reefdup.com Diving since 2009, reefkeeping since 2007, & fishkeeping since 1987 200g, 75g, & 15g Systems PADI Advanced Open Water |
Posted By: love2skiutah
Date Posted: December 05 2013 at 11:42am
I haven't been paying much attention to the pressure gauge. I'll take note of what it is. Maybe I should just go through and change all the filters, I have them sitting here at my house anyway. The RODI system has only been running for about 30 days on my 120 and 60 days on this new tank.
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Posted By: 08TRDOFFROAD
Date Posted: December 05 2013 at 12:09pm
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I am going on about 8 months on my spectra pure max cap di cartridges. Still getting 0 TDS out the resin. My water is horrible out here. TDS going into the unit is near 700 last time I tested. 8-10 TDS going into the resin. |
Posted By: ReefdUp
Date Posted: December 05 2013 at 12:52pm
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700 is above the EPA limit for city waterif I remember correctly. ------------- www.reefdup.com Diving since 2009, reefkeeping since 2007, & fishkeeping since 1987 200g, 75g, & 15g Systems PADI Advanced Open Water |
Posted By: Fatman
Date Posted: December 05 2013 at 1:37pm
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Do I see a theme here? SpectraPure filters? |
Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: December 05 2013 at 1:40pm
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Aaron I am running the same unit as you. My TDS in is 278-280. Out of the membrane is 6-10 and out of my single stage DI is 0. I only use about 20 gallons per week and I am going on almost 12 months with only changing the sediment cartridge once. Yours should be doing almost the same thing. It sounds like your back pressure shutoff isn't working and even though your float is stopping the flow to your tank there is still water running through your membrane and forcing it all down the drain. That shouldn't effect your DI though unless your unit is hooked up wrong. Are you going only by the color of the DI or by the TDS shown on your meter? Mine changes color quite a while before I measure any TDS on the output. ------------- My ocean. 90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems PADI Advanced Open Water http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread: |
Posted By: 08TRDOFFROAD
Date Posted: December 06 2013 at 10:11am
According to the city water report we get annually, 1000 TDS is the cut off. If the water supply has a TDS of 1000 or more, the city has to prove that no access to better water exists. Herriman's water is ridiculously hard as well. 7-8 grains is considered hard, ours tested at 28 grains. |
Posted By: ReefdUp
Date Posted: December 07 2013 at 8:04am
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Ahh, I just looked it up. The EPA secondary drinking water regulations is 500...meaning it's unenforceable. Wow...1000...that's hard to swallow (ha...haha......) ------------- www.reefdup.com Diving since 2009, reefkeeping since 2007, & fishkeeping since 1987 200g, 75g, & 15g Systems PADI Advanced Open Water |
Posted By: Mark Peterson
Date Posted: December 07 2013 at 9:01am
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Yesterday, I visited a hobbyist here in Murray that uses conditioned tap water. His tanks are awesome and all coral, including his SPS dominant tank, have been growing like crazy. This confirmed my long held belief that we need not get worried over a few TDS in our purified water. Years ago, I set up a tank for a friend using the Kold-Steril water filtration system as seen here http://www.marinedepot.com/Poly_Bio_Marine-PB-vd.html" rel="nofollow - http://www.marinedepot.com/Poly_Bio_Marine-PB-vd.html This filtration removes any harmful compounds but leaves Alkalinity, Calcium and Magnesium in the product water (Alkalinity and Calcium make up a good portion of the TDS in tap water). His tank always looked awesome and he kept some animals that had been difficult for other hobbyists. Supplements were almost unheard of for this guy. Just FWIW. Aloha, Mark  808-345-1049 ------------- Reefkeeping Tips, & quick, easy setup tricks: www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244 Pay it forward - become a paid WMAS member 
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Posted By: JohnnyHeavens
Date Posted: December 07 2013 at 10:35pm
I don't want to be a pessimist here Mark but does this actually confirm anything helpful? Aside from some random hobbyist in murray growing some unknown corals. Do you know what's in my water? I don't. Thus, it seems prudent to clean the water and mix it to known parameters rather than just hope for the best. Even if I test my water and somehow only leave the Alk/Calcium that I want, we have no way to know or any reason to suspect that my water will stay of a constant make up. My inbound TDS is all over the place and somehow I doubt this variance is Riverton City adjusting things for the benefit of my aquaria. It seems unhelpful to suggest that any ol' tap water will do. When handed a gun it is standard practice to check the chamber. Even if someone says it's unloaded, you check. Water for our aquariums isn't much different. Isn't it safer to just make sure it's good and safe? ------------- @Home 300g System 150g-Cube Reef+60g Frag+WaterChange 150g Tall FOWLR RIP @Work RSM 130D w/LEDs txt anytime @ eightO1-seven5five-eighteen99 Scuba! PADI Pro DM/AI/TecDeep NSS/CDS-Full Cave Diver |
Posted By: JohnnyHeavens
Date Posted: December 07 2013 at 11:06pm
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It was sort of asked but how do you determine when to change the resin? I've thinking about it and I make well over 100g a month and I've not had to change out my DI resin in 13 months now. I'm in west Riverton and inbound TDS is in the 300 range. Most often it's 260-310 inbound and I'm still 3-4 TDS on the outbound product. Even after the above usage and the setup of two decent sized systems of 150g or greater. I do have to run my RO for about 10 minutes after letting the system sit for a day or so. I try to do larger batches of water and if I just run the unit, the product water has a TDS of about 200. It comes down to the 3-4 over the next 10 minutes or so. ------------- @Home 300g System 150g-Cube Reef+60g Frag+WaterChange 150g Tall FOWLR RIP @Work RSM 130D w/LEDs txt anytime @ eightO1-seven5five-eighteen99 Scuba! PADI Pro DM/AI/TecDeep NSS/CDS-Full Cave Diver |
Posted By: tileman
Date Posted: December 08 2013 at 12:19am
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I run a Spectrapure Maxcap 90 double DI and I try to change out my two resin cartridges twice a year. I also change out my carbon and first stage filter 3-4 times a year. Anytime my output isn't zero, it's time. ------------- 335G Reef TOTM. http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2015/2/aquarium ReefKeepers TOTM Feb. 2012 http://reefkeeping.com/joomla/index....k-of-the-month & |
Posted By: Mark Peterson
Date Posted: December 08 2013 at 8:14am
I could be wrong but it appears that the DI resin on Johnny Heavens RO-DI unit is saturated/spent. In fact it may have been spent many months ago. If so, the unit has been producing RO water with a TDS of 3-4 ppm. If this tank is doing well, this leads us to conclude that the DI resin is probably not even needed. I would say it's okay to discard the DI resin and run the unit without DI. The tank is doing just fine with RO water.  If you want to know more of the technical reasons why, read on... The reason for what is called "TDS creep" is that when the water flow stops through the RO membrane, the equalization of pressure on both sides of the membrane allows a small amount of dissolved solids to slowly pass through the membrane to the pure water side. The hobbyist then has a choice, to flush out that high TDS water or not worry about it because, like I tried to say before, it's just a few TDS that won't hurt in the whole scheme of things because it actually feeds the coral. My detailed answer to JohnnyHeavens question Knowing when to change the resin is a matter of monitoring the TDS of the RO/DI water. In normal operation the TDS coming out of the DI stage will be at a baseline of zero ppm. Usually when the DI Resin is saturated the TDS will be noticeably higher. This change is noticeable fairly swiftly, within a week or even a few days. Like I said above, since some people use tap water of 200 TDS, we really needn't fret about a few TDS but when the TDS is rising, that's telling us it's time to check the unit. At this point, while removing the DI resin/chamber, it's a good idea to check the RO water TDS to make sure it is below 10 ppm, or lower if it has been producing better that that. Thinking about DI resin that has been making 100 gals a week for 13 months suggests two possibilities. Either the RO water is extremely pure, meaning that the RO membrane has almost zero TDS for the DI resin to remove, which greatly extended its life, OR the DI resin reached saturation long ago causing the TDS reading to be constant ever since, essentially being RO water. The last statement in John's post about having to run the unit for a few minutes to discard the 200 ppm TDS water would indicate the latter is the case. DI resin in good condition would normally soak up that initial 200 TDS. Hope this helps and that my explanation is clear. Mark 808-345-1049 ------------- Reefkeeping Tips, & quick, easy setup tricks: www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244 Pay it forward - become a paid WMAS member
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